Acquisition of a Laser Diffraction Particle Size Analyzer for Research in Sedimentology and Biogeochemistry

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This grant provides support for the acquisition of a laser diffraction particle size analyzer for the Department of Marine, Earth, and Atmospheric Sciences (MEAS) at North Carolina State University. A Beckman Coulter laser diffractometer with the capability for rapid and repeatable determination of grain size distributions in suspensions of sand to clay sized fractions will be acquired. A group of five PIs and their students will use the laser diffractometer for grain size analysis in support of a range of research in sedimentology, carbon cycling, marine stratigraphy, animal-sediment interactions, hydrology and geochemistry. Marine and lacustrine sediments and soils provide a record of past environmental conditions, are important reservoirs in the global carbon cycle, and host a great variety of life forms from bacteria to macrofauna, whose biogeochemical activity controls the fate and transport of naturally occurring and anthropogenic organic and inorganic species. Grain size distributions can reveal a great deal about transport processes and when coupled with other geochemical proxies, provide insight to provenance, paleoenvironmental conditions and diagenetic processes. The laser diffractometer will support improved educational opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students at NCSU. Faculty and student biogeochemical and paleoenvironmental research at NCSU has implications for understanding and reacting to global climate change and for pollutant remediation.